


Days of Summer

by astromancer



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Fluff, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Jealousy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-22 20:32:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/917730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astromancer/pseuds/astromancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat, Dave, John, Kanaya and Rose go to the beach and Karkat has some realizations about his relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Days of Summer

The grass is a cool tickle against your toes as you walk toward the beach, Dave, John, Kanaya and Rose mere paces ahead of you. You watch the grass bristle past as you walk, but make to turn your gaze instead to the rolling water ahead of you. You catch his gaze as he absently adjusts his shades and grins. He says something about it going to take forever for you to get there at this rate, but slows his pace nonetheless, breaking from his place at John’s side to take the one at yours.

You can’t read him with those damn shades on, but you do notice his subtle shift from grin to smile and can’t help but revel in the thought that he happier with you than with John. You brush this off though, not as jealousy or spite (or so you’re telling yourself), but as being matesprits and John being nowhere close to that with either of you.

John did not spend day-in and day-out with Dave for three years on the meteor. You did.

John is not Dave’s ‘bro for life’. Nor is he in a quadrant with him. You are.

The thoughts give your stomach an odd twist, and so you push them into the dark recesses of your mind and instead lightly return Dave’s smile. He snorts in response, but it’s really more endearing than anything. If a snort could ever be considered ‘endearing’.

You feel the grass thinning through the spaces in your sandals as they sink gently into soft white sand. Ahead of you, John kicks off his flip-flops and runs to the edge of the water, his pale human toes being enveloped by the water there, and the others follow suit, removing their sandals and welcoming the hot sand upon their soles. You decide to do the same, as your own sandals have been chafing your skin throughout the walk there.

The warm almost-burn of the sand against your feet – a stark contrast to the grass – is immediately foreign to you. Alternia's coastlines had been less than hospitable, and even if they were, the scorching rays of Alternia’s sun was more than enough to convince most trolls to just not go there. So you marvel in the new sensations, digging your clawed toes deep into the sand and reaching a strangely damp coolness amongst the heat.

Caught up in your discovery, you don't notice Dave watching you until you turn your gaze back up to him again. He has a smirk plastered on his face, but something is off about it and you just can't pinpoint what. It's as though he's deep in thought, as he doesn't seem to realize that you're staring at him now, and it is times like this when you just want to rip those shades off of his face and let his eyes, not his lips, do the talking.

Before you can make a move, though, he snaps out of whatever reverie he was in and glances over to John, still wiggling his toes in the water and inching forward. John calls out an invitation to join, and looking over at Kanaya and Rose setting down the blankets and chairs you realize that John was talking to Dave and yourself. Dave responds in a playfully sardonic drawl and he laughs as he tugs you along, ignoring your nearly biting protests. You are pulled toward the water unceremoniously and, cursing, you tug your wrist out of Dave's grip to allow yourself a moment to adjust to the chill of the salty lake as it rolls around your ankles.

John, now perched atop a rock almost entirely submerged by the waves, dramatically adjusts his stance before taking this moment to dive, whooping as he leaps. His splash leaves you splattered in icy droplets and you curse vehemently at him. Through his yelps, he giggles and tells you to ‘chill’. You begin to let him know that, thanks to him, that is exactly what you’re doing, but you’re interrupted mid-sentence by a frozen hand on your shoulder. Now you are the one that yelps.

You turn to face a snickering Dave and you shove him, but he knows better and grips onto you as you both tumble into the lake. He sputters as his head bobs to the surface. You push yourself up to sit in the shallow water and cough up the salty water that stings your throat. You shiver miserably, and a whine bubbles up in your chest. Dave sits, too, his coughs lasting longer than yours as your head had not been the one submerged underwater. His hair is plastered to his face and sticking every which way but he does nothing to fix it. He does, however, take off his now soaked shades. Finally.

He bonks you on the forehead with the flat of his palm and calls you a dumbass, but there is no anger in his tone or expression. Before you can even think to respond, he pulls you in and kisses you, hard. You feel the upward curl of his lips as they press against your own and you flush as an embarrassingly delighted-sounding purr vibrates through your chest, your throat, your lips. 

Candy-red heat blazes across your cheekbones. Damn him and his ability to turn you into an absolutely vulnerable and trembling puddle of Karkat. He pulls back then and you feel his breath, warm against your chilled skin, as he laughs and damn if it isn’t the most beautiful sound you’ve ever heard. Not that you’d ever tell him that.

The sound of John’s voice questioning the well-being of the two of you makes your body still. You silently curse yourself for having shown a moment of vulnerability in front of everyone. With the chills still crackling down your spine, however, your stillness goes almost unnoticed. Almost.

You feel the pad of a human thumb, softer than your own, running soothingly across your cheekbone and leaving a streak of cold in its wake, and are met with hard red eyes and a gently curving smile. The juxtaposition of these two features existing simultaneously on one face leaves you stunned, and once again you find yourself departing from John and Kanaya and Rose and the rolling waters around you and instead entering a dazed focus on Dave and only Dave.

He calls you an idiot then, but lovingly so. You return the endearment, along with a purr that, once again, rumbles out on its own accord. You are not sure exactly what the turning point was in your relationship with this human, how you went from hating each others guts to being best friends and more.

All you know is that for once in your life, you are happy. And really, you wouldn’t have it any other way.


End file.
